Wandl the Invader
R >>
Raymond King Cummings >> Wandl the Invader
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 Transcriber's Note:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
WANDL THE
INVADER
by
RAY CUMMINGS
ACE BOOKS, INC.
23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.
Copyright (C), 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.
Magazine version serialized in _Astounding Stories_,
Copyright, 1932, by Clayton Publications, Inc.
* * * * *
1
"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."
"How little?" Venza demanded.
"One-fifth the mass of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."
"And how far is it away?" Anita asked. "I heard a newscaster say
yesterday...."
"Newscasters!" Venza broke in scornfully. "Say, you can take what they
tell you about any danger or trouble and cut it in half; and even then
you'll be on the gloomy side. See here, Gregg Haljan."
"I'm not giving you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's
extravagant vehemence was always refreshing. The Venus girl glared at
me. I added: "Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."
Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat upright
and tense, her chin cupped in her hands. "Tell us."
"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a
planet, a wanderer."
"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from heaven
knows where beyond the stars, swimming in here like a comet."
"They calculated its distance yesterday at some sixty-five million
miles from Earth," I said. "It isn't so far beyond the orbit of Mars,
coming diagonally and heading very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a
comet."
The thing was indeed inexplicable; for many weeks now, astronomers had
been studying it. This was early summer of the year 2070 A.D. All of
us had recently returned from those extraordinary events I have
already recounted, when we came close to losing Johnny Grantline's
radiactum treasure on the Moon, and our lives as well. My ship, the
_Planetara_, in the astronomical seasons when the Earth, Mars, and
Venus were within comfortable traveling distances of each other, had
carried mail and passengers from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn, of
the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it was
wrecked on the Moon.[1]
[Footnote 1: See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324]
I had been under navigating officer of the _Planetara_. Upon her, I
had met Anita Prince, whose only living relative, her brother, was
among those killed in the struggle with the brigands; Anita and I were
soon to marry, we hoped.
I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the decision of the Line
officials regarding another spaceship. Perhaps I would have command of
it, since Captain Carter of the _Planetara_ had been killed.
It was a month or so before that adventure, April, 2070, that this
mysterious visitor from interstellar space first appeared upon our
astronomical horizon. A little thing, at first, a mere unusual dot, a
pinpoint on a photo-electric star diagram which should not have been
there. It occasioned no comment at the time, save that some thought it
might be another planet beyond Pluto; but this was not taken seriously
enough to get into the newscasts. None of us had heard about it as
late as May, when the _Planetara_ set out on what was to be her final
voyage.
Presently, it was seen that the object could not be a planet of our
solar system; Coming in at tremendous speed, it daily changed its
aspect, gathering velocity until soon it was not a dot, but a streak
on every diagram-plate.
In a week or so the thing passed from an astronomical curiosity to an
item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through
the orbit of Jupiter and was approaching that of Mars, fear was
growing. The visitor was a menace. No astronomical body could come
among us, with a mass as great as a fifth of the Moon, without causing
trouble.
The newscasters, with a ready skill for lurid possibilities, were
blaring of all sorts of horrible events impending.
I told the girls all I knew of the approaching wanderer. The density
was similar to that of Earth. The oncoming velocity and the calculated
elements of its orbit now were such that within a few weeks more the
new planet would round our Sun and presumably head outward again. It
would pass within a few million miles of us, causing a disturbance to
Earth's orbit, even a change of the inclination of our axis, affecting
our tides and our climate.
"So I've heard," Venza interrupted me. "They say that, and then they
stop. Why can't a newscaster tell you what is so mysterious?"
"For a very good reason, Venza: because you can't throw people into a
panic. This whole thing, up to today, has been withheld from the
public of Earth and Venus. The Martian Union tried to withhold it, but
could not. Every heliogram between the worlds is censored."
"And still," said Venza sarcastically, "you don't tell us what is so
mysterious about this wanderer."
"For one thing," I said, "it changes its direction. No normal heavenly
body does that. They calculated the elements of its orbit last April.
They've done it twenty times since, and every time the projected orbit
is different. Just a little at first, but last week the accursed thing
actually took a sudden turn, as though it were a spaceship."
The girls stared at me. "What does that mean?" Anita asked.
"They're beginning to make wild guesses but we won't go into that."
"What else is mysterious?" Venza demanded.
"The thing isn't normally visible."
Venza shifted her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"
"Not normally visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the
Moon could be seen plainly by our 'scopes when well beyond Pluto. It's
now between Jupiter and Mars, invisible to the naked eye, of course,
but still it's not very far away. I've been out there myself. With
instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see whether it
has land and water, inhabitants perhaps. You should be able to
distinguish an object on its surface as large as a city, but you
can't."
"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What causes it?"
"They don't even know that," I retorted. "There is something abnormal
about the light-waves coming from it. Not exactly blurred, but a
distortion, a fading. It's some abnormality of the light-waves."
A swift rapping on our door-grid interrupted me, and Snap Dean burst
in.
"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."
He dashed across the room, kissed Venza, pretended that he was about
to kiss Anita, and winked at me. He was a dynamic little fellow,
small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the
radio-helio operator of the ill-fated _Planetara_. He was a perfect
match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that separated their
native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as readily
jocular as his.
"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.
"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since
you insist on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."
"Do stop it," protested Anita. "We've been talking of...."
"I know very well what you've been talking about. Everybody is. I've
got news for you, Gregg." He went abruptly solemn and lowered his
voice. "Halsey wants to see us, right away."
I regarded him blankly and my mind swept back. No more than a few
short weeks ago Detective-Colonel Halsey of Divisional Headquarters
here in Greater New York had sent for us, and we had been precipitated
into the Grantline affair. "Halsey!" I burst out.
"Easy, Gregg." Snap cast a vague look around Anita's draped apartment.
An open window was beside us, leading to a tiny catwalk balcony. It
was moonlit now, and two hundred feet above the pedestrian viaduct.
But Snap continued to frown. "Easy, I tell you. Why shout about
Halsey? The air can have ears."
Venza moved and closed and sealed the window.
"What is it?" I asked, more softly.
But Snap was not satisfied. "Anita, do you have a complete isolation
barrage for this room?"
"Of course I haven't, Snap."
"Well, Gregg do you have a detector with you?"
I had none. Snap produced his little coil and indicator dial. "It's
out of order, but let's see now. Shove over that chair, Gregg."
He disconnected one of the room's tube-lights and contacted with the
cathode. It was a makeshift method, but as he dropped to the floor,
uncoiling a little length of his wire for an external pick-up, we saw
that the thing worked. The pointer on the dial-face was swaying.
"Gregg!" he muttered. "Look at that. Didn't I tell you?"
The pointer quivered in positive reaction. An eavesdropping ray was
upon us.
Anita gasped, "I had no idea!"
"No, but I did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."
He and I carried the detector to the length of the hall. The indicator
went nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.
We went to the moonlit balcony. "Way down there on the pedestrian
arcade," I said.
"We'll soon fix that," Snap said.
Inside the room, we made connection with a newscaster's blaring voice.
Under cover of it we could talk. Snap gathered us close around him.
"Halsey has something important, and it's about this interstellar
invader. It all connects. His office paged me on a public mirror. I
happened to see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man
wanted me to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have enough to
worry about with the interplanetary helios. Then they sent me to an
official booth, where I got examined for positive legal
identification, and then they put me on the official split-wave
length. After all of which precautions I was told to be at Halsey's
office tonight at midnight, and told a few other things."
"What?" demanded Venza breathlessly.
"Only hints. Why take chances, by repeating them now?"
"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.
"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to get into his office secretly, by the
vacuum cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth
Postal switch-station."
"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the universe can he want with
Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"
Snap gazed at her and grinned. "That sounds like a logical deduction.
Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."
"I'm going," Anita insisted.
We left half an hour before midnight. The girls were both in gray,
with long capes. We took the public monorail into the mid-Manhattan
section under the city roof of the business district, and into the
Eighth Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came
tumbling out of the vacuum ports to be re-routed and dispatched again.
A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"
"Yes. We were ordered here."
The detective gazed at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."
"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The extra one is Miss
Anita Prince. Ever heard of her?"
He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."
We were put into one of the oversized mail cylinders and routed
through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with
a thump that knocked the breath out of all of us, we were in the
switch-rack of Halsey's outer office.
We clambered from the cylinder. Our guide led us down one of the
gloomy metal corridors. It echoed with our tread.
A door lifted.
"Daniel Dean and party."
The guard stood aside. "Come in."
The door slid down behind us. We advanced into the small blue-lit
apartment, steel-lined like a vault.
2
Colonel Halsey sat at his desk, with a few papers before him and a
bank of instrument controls at his elbow. He pushed his audiphone and
mirror-grid to one side.
"Sit down, please." He gave us each the benefit of a welcoming smile,
and his gaze finished upon Anita.
"I came because you sent for Venza," Anita said quickly. "Please,
Colonel Halsey, let me stay. I thought, whatever you want her for, you
might need me, too."
"Quite so, Miss Prince. Perhaps I shall." It seemed that in his mind
were many of the thoughts thronging my own, for he added: "Haljan, I
recall I sent for you like this once before. I hope this may be a more
auspicious occasion."
"So do I, sir."
Snap said, "We've been afraid hardly to do more than a whisper. But
you're insulated here, and we're mighty curious."
Halsey nodded. "I can talk freely to you, and yet I cannot." His gaze
went to Venza. "It is you in whom I am most interested."
"Me? You flatter me, Colonel Halsey." She sat gracefully reclining in
the metal chair before his desk, seeming small as a child between its
big, broad arms. Her long gray skirt had parted to display her
shapely, gray-satined legs. She had thrown off the hood of her cloak.
Her thick black hair was coiled in a knot low at the back of her neck;
her carmine lips bore an alluring smile. It was all instinctive. To
this girl from Venus it came as naturally as she breathed.
Halsey's gray eyes twinkled. "Do not look at me quite like that, Miss
Venza, or I shall forget what I have to say. You would get the better
of me; I'm glad you're not a criminal."
"So am I," she declared. "What can I do for you, Colonel Halsey?"
His smile faded at once. His glance included us all. "Just this. There
is a man here in Greater New York, a Martian whom they call _Set_
Molo. He has a younger sister, _Setta_ Meka. Have any of you heard of
them?"
We had not. Halsey went on, slowly now, apparently choosing his words
with the greatest care. "There are things that I can tell you and
there are things that I cannot."
"Why not?" asked Venza.
"My dear, for one thing, if you are going to help me you can do it
best by not knowing too much. For another, I have my orders; this
thing concerns the very highest authorities, not only of the U.S.W.,
but in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar too."
He paused, but none of us spoke. Then Halsey said quietly, "Well, this
Martian and his sister are here now in Greater New York. They have
some secret. They are engaged in some activity, and I want to find
out what it is. I have picked up only little parts of it."
He stopped; and out of the silence Snap said, "If you don't mind,
Colonel Halsey, it seems to me you are mostly talking in code."
"I'm not, but I'm trying to tell you as little as possible. You, Miss
Venza, need only understand this: the Martian, Molo, must be induced
to give you some idea of what he is doing here."
"And I am to induce him?" Venza asked calmly.
"That is my idea." The faint shadow of a smile swept Halsey's thin,
intent face. "My dear, you are a girl of Venus. More than that, you
have far more than your normal share of wits and brains."
It did not make Venza smile. She sat tense now, with her dark-eyed
gaze fastened on Halsey's face. Anita, equally breathless, reached
over and gripped her hand.
Then Venza said slowly, "I realize, Colonel Halsey, that this is
something vital."
"As vital, my child, as it could be." He drew a long breath. "I want
you to understand I am doing my duty. Doing, what seems the best
thing, not for you, perhaps, but for the world."
I seemed to see into his mind at that moment. He might have been a
father, sending a daughter into danger.
"I need not disguise the danger. I have lost a dozen men." He lighted
a cigarette. "I don't seem to be able to frighten you?"
"No," she said. And I heard Anita murmur, "Oh, Venza!"
"But you frighten me," said Snap. "Colonel, look here; you know I'm
going to marry this girl very soon."
"Yes, I know. You'll have to consider this a sacrifice, a voluntary
descent into danger, for a great cause in a great crisis. You four
have just come out of a very considerable danger. We know of what
stuff you are made, all of you."
He smiled again. "Perhaps that prominence is unfortunate for you, but
let me settle it now. Is there any one of you who will not take my
orders and trust my judgement of what is best? And do it, if need be,
blindly? Will you offer yourselves to me?"
We gazed at each other. Both the girls instantly murmured, "Yes."
"Yes," I said at last. It was not too hard for me, for I thought I was
yielding him Venza, not Anita.
Snap was very pale. He stared from one to the other of us.
"Yes," he said finally. "But Colonel, surely you can tell us more."
Halsey tossed his cigarette away. "I will tell you as much as I think
best. These Martians, Molo and his sister, do not know of Venza; at
least, I think that they do not. They apparently have not been here
very long. How they got here, we don't know. There was no passenger or
freight ship. In Ferrok-Shahn, they have a dubious reputation at best;
but I won't go into that.
"Venza, I will show you these Martians and the rest depends upon you.
There is a mystery; you will find out what it is."
He reached for his inter-office audiphone. "I want to locate the
Martian _Set_ Molo. Francis, Staff X2, has it in charge."
The audible connection came in a moment. "Francis?"
We could hear the answering microphonic voice, "Yes Colonel."
"Is the fellow in a public place by any chance?"
"In the Red Spark Cafe, Colonel. With his sister and a party."
"Good enough. The Red Spark has an image-finder. Have you visual
connection?"
"Yes, the whole room; they have a dozen finders."
"Use a magnifier. Get me the closest view you can."
"It's done, Colonel. I did it just in case you called."
"Connect it."
In a moment our mirror-grid was glowing with the two-foot square image
of the interior of the Red Spark Cafe. I knew the place by reputation:
a fashionable, more or less disreputable eating, drinking and dancing
restaurant, where money and alcholite flowed freely. The patrons were
successful criminals of the three worlds, intermingled with thrilled,
respectable tourists who hoped they would see something really evil.
The Red Spark was not far from Halsey's office; it was perched high in
a break of the city roof, almost directly over Park-Circle 29.
"There he is," said Halsey.
We crowded around his desk. The image showed the interior of a large
oval room, balconied and terraced; a dais dance-floor, raised high in
the center with three professional couples gyrating there; and beneath
them the public dance-grid, slowly rotating on its central axis. A
hundred or so couples were dancing. The lower floor was crowded with
dining tables; others were upon the little catwalk balconies, and
still others in the terraced nooks and side niches, half-enshrouded,
half-revealed by colored draperies.
The image now was silent, for Halsey was not bothering with audio
connection. But it was a riot of color, flashing colored floodlights
bathing the dancers in vivid tints; and there were twinkling spots of
colored tube-lights on all the tables. I saw, too, the blank
rectangles of darkness against the walls which marked the private
dining rooms, insulated against sight and sound. Here one might go for
frivolous indiscretion, or for conspiracy, perhaps, and be as secure
from interruption as we were, here in Halsey's office.
Venza asked eagerly, "Which is he?"
"Over there on the third terrace to the left. That table. There seem
to be six of them in the party."
We heard Francis' voice; he was in Halsey's lower Manhattan office,
with this same image before him. "We'll get a closer view."
The table in question was no more than a square inch on our image. We
could see an apparently gay party of men and women. One of the couples
was gigantic, a Martian man and woman, obviously. The others seemed to
be Earth or Venus people.
Francis' voice added: "I've got an audio magnifier on them. Foley's
been listening for an hour. Nice, clear English. Much good it does us;
this fellow is as cautious as a director of the lower air-lane. Here's
your near-look."
Our image shifted to another view. The lens-eye with which we were
connected now gave us a view directly over the Martian's table. We
were looking down diagonally upon the table, at a distance of no more
than ten feet.
There were three Earthwomen in the party. There was nothing peculiar
about them. They were rather handsome, dissolute in appearance, all of
them obviously befuddled by alcholite. There was a man who could have
been Anglo-Saxon. A wastrel, probably, with more money than wit; he
wore a black dinner suit edged with white.
Our attention focussed upon the other two. They were tall, as are all
Martians. The young woman, _Setta_ Meka, seemed perhaps twenty or
twenty-five years of age, by Earth reckoning, in stature perhaps very
nearly my own height, which is six feet two. It is difficult to tell a
Martian's age, but she was very handsome, even by Earth standards; and
in Ferrok-Shahn she would be considered a beauty. Her gray-black hair
was parted and tied at the back with a plaited metal rope. Her short
dark cloak, so luminous a fabric that it caught and reflected the
sheen of all the gaudy restaurant lights, was parted, its ends thrown
back over her shoulders. Beneath it she wore the characteristic
Martian leather jacket, and short, wide leather trousers ornamented
with spun metal fringes and tassels. Most Martian women have an
amazonian aspect, but I saw now that _Setta_ Meka was an exception.
Her brother, who sat beside her, was a full seven feet or more. A
hulking sort of fellow, far less spindly than most of his race, he
might have come from the polar outposts beyond the Martian Union. He
was bare-headed, his gray-black hair clipped close upon a round bullet
head, with the familiar Martian round eyes.
I gazed into the face of Molo, as momentarily he turned his head. It
was a rough-hewn, strongly masculine face with a hawk-like nose, bushy
black brows frowning above deepset round eyes. The face of a keen
scoundrel, I could not doubt, though the smooth-plucked gray skin was
flushed now with alcholite, and the wide, thin-lipped mouth was
leering at the woman across the table from him.
Like his sister, he had thrown back his cloak, disclosing a brawny,
powerful figure, leather clad, with a wide belt of dangling ornaments,
some of which probably were weapons.
How long we gazed at this silent colored image of the restaurant table
I do not know. I was aware of Halsey's quiet voice: "Look him over,
Miss Venza. It depends on you."
Another interval passed. It seemed, as we watched, that Molo's
interest in his party was very slight. I got the impression, too, that
though at first he had seemed to be intoxicated, actually he was not.
Nor was his sister. Anxiety seemed upon her; the smile she had for
jests seemed forced; and at intervals she would cast a swift, furtive
glance across the gay restaurant scene.
More drinks arrived. The Earthpeople at the table here seemed upon the
verge of stupor; and suddenly it appeared that Molo had completely
lost interest in them. With a gesture to his sister, he abruptly rose
from his seat. She joined him. They left the table, and a red-clad
floor manager of the restaurant came at their call. Then in a moment
they were moving across the room.
Halsey called sharply into his audiphone: "Francis! Hold us to them if
you can."
They were standing now by the opened door of one of the Red Spark's
private insulated rooms. We caught a glimpse of its interior, a gaily
set table with a bank of colored lights over it.
The figure of a man was in there. He was on his feet, as though he had
just arrived to meet the Martians here, and a hooded long cloak
enveloped him. It may have been a magnetic "invisible" cloak, with the
current now off.
We caught only the fleetest of impressions before the insulated door
closed and barred our vision. The glimpse was an accident. Molo, taken
by surprise at this appearance of his visitor, could hardly have
guarded against it. The waiting figure was very tall, some ten feet,
and very thin. The hood shrouded his face and head. In his hand he
held a large circular box of black shiny leather, of the sort in which
women carry wide-brimmed hats. As Molo joined him he put the box
gently on the floor. He handled it as though it were extraordinarily
heavy; and as he took a step or two, he seemed weighted down. Just as
the room door was hastily closing, Meka sliding it from the inside, we
caught a fleeting glimpse of horror.
The lid of the hat box had lifted up. Inside was a great round thing
of gray-white, a living thing; a distended ball of membrane, with a
network of veins and blood-vessels showing beneath the transparent
skin.
For the instant we gazed, stricken. The ball was palpitating,
breathing! I saw convolutions of inner tissue under the transparent
skin of membrane; a little tentacle, like an arm with a flat-webbed
hand, was holding up the lid of the box. The lid rose a trifle
higher; the colored lights overhead gave us a brief but clear view of
it.
The thing in the box was a huge living brain. I saw goggling,
protruding eyes; an orifice that could have been a nose, and a gash
upended for a vertical mouth. It was a face. And the little tentacle
arm holding up the box-lid was joined to where the ear should have
been.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11